While the public benefits of business aviation aren’t always blatantly visible, the industry is important to helping the organizations we rely on run as efficiently as possible. Having aircraft dedicated solely to business functions allows employees to work while en route to various destinations, saving ample time compared to other modes of travel.
Air freight is another facet of business aviation. Many of the products and goods we use are transported via cargo planes, about $6 trillion worth, according to the International Air Transport Association.
A San Francisco tech company provides operating software for these and other flight operations within the business aviation industry. Portside announced a $50 million Series B investment this week from lead investor Insight Partners.
Portside offers a suite of cloud-based tools meant to solve industry pain points, such as flight and crew scheduling, dispatch and compliance and reporting and analytics. Portside’s SaaS solution supports more than 700 aircraft operators in over 30 countries, spanning charter, corporate, government and other operations. Some of its customers include Airshare, Jet Aviation and Wheels Up.
The funding round follows an eventful year for Portside. In addition to the new capital, the company announced a pair of acquisitions.
Portside added two flight management companies to its ranks last year. Professional Flight Management and BART joined Portside’s business, both offering solutions for scheduling and dispatch with a focus on corporate flight departments. By acquiring these new systems, Portside plans to modernize both software offerings to better serve customers.
“Increasingly, operators in business aviation are looking for mobile-first and cloud-based solutions,” Alek Vernitsky, Portside’s co-founder and CEO, said in a statement. “Portside provides industry-leading solutions that enable operators to grow their businesses while improving the quality of service they can offer. Our focus on the customer and delivering secure, intuitive and effective solutions makes Portside the best solution for all private, corporate and government flight departments.”
Outfitted with fresh capital, Portside plans to advance its software development as well as expand its customer base and product portfolio. The company wants to explore more acquisition opportunities within the business aviation space, and it also aims to expand its team across sales and customer success.
